A detailed statement showing the number of United States troops stationed in the State of Alabama on the 3d day of November, 1874.

JANUARY 19, 1875.-Referred to the Committee on Military Affairs and ordered to be

printed.

WAR DEPARTMENT, January 16, 1875.

The Secretary of War has the honor to transmit to the House of Representatives, reports of the Adjutant-General, Quartermaster-General, and Commissary-General of Subsistence, containing the information called for by the following resolutions of the House, of the 14th ultimo:

Resolved, That the Secretary of War be, and is hereby, directed to furnish to the House a detailed statement showing the number of United States troops stationed in the State of Alabama on the 3d day of November, 1874, and their distribution, whether in regiments, companies, or squads, and the places at which said troops were located, and whether said troops acted independently or as a posse of the United States marshal.

Resolved, further, That the Secretary of War is hereby directed to furnish to the House a detailed statement of the manner in which he has executed the provisions of joint resolutions passed at the first session of the Forty-third Congress, authorizing the President of the United States to issue army-rations and clothing to the destitute peope of the Tombigbee, Warrior, and Alabama Rivers, in the State of Alabama, showing the amount and kinds of provisions distributed, the time at which, the places where, and to what persons said provisions were distributed; and also such further information as he may be in possession of respecting the distribution of said provisions, by persons not in the military service of the United States.

WM. W. BELKNAP,
Secretary of War.

Indorsement on resolution of the House of Representatives, dated December 14, 1874.

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, January 5, 1875.

Respectfully returned to the Secretary of War.

Inclosed is a list showing the distribution of United States troops in the State of Alabama, November 3, 1874, as called for under the first resolution.

In this connection, attention is invited to accompanying circular of September 3, 1874, from the Department of Justice, as showing the purposes for which the troops were thus stationed, and the general instructions under which they acted, viz, for the purpose of giving all needful aid, in the discharge of their official duties, to United States civil officers of the law.

E. D. TOWNSEND,
Adjutant-General.

Distribution of United States troops in the State of Alabama November 3, 1874, as shown by the records of the Adjutant-General's Office.

CIRCULAR OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL.

Instructions to United States marshals and attorneys.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,
Washington, September 3, 1874.

SIR: Outrages of various descriptions, and in some cases atrocious murders, have been committed in your district by bodies of armed men, sometimes in disguise, and with the view, it is believed, of overawing and intimidating peaceable and law-abiding citizens, and depriving them of the rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution and laws of the United States.

Your attention is directed to an act of Congress passed April 9, 1866, entitled "An act to protect all persons in the United States in their civil rights and to furnish means for their vindication;" and to another passed April 20, 1871, entitled "An act to enforce the provisions of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and for other purposes;" also, to one passed May 30 [1], 1870, entitled "An act to enforce the right of citizens of the United States to vote in the several States of this Union, and for other purposes," which, with their amendments, make these deeds of violence and blood offenses within the jurisdiction of the General Government.

I consider it my duty, in view of these circumstances, to instruct you to proceed with all possible energy and dispatch to detect, expose, arrest, and punish the perpetrators of these crimes; and, to that end, you are to spare no effort or necessary expense.

Troops of the United States will be stationed at different and convenient points in your district, for the purpose of giving you all needful aid in the discharge of your official duties.

You understand, of course, that no interference whatever is hereby intended with any political or party action not in violation of law; but protection to all classes of citizens, white and colored, in the free exercise of the elective franchise, and the enjoyment of the other rights and privileges to which they are entitled under the Constitution and laws, as citizens of the United States.

These instructions are issued by the authority of the President, and with the concurrence of the Secretary of War.

Very respectfully,

Official copy:

GEO. H. WILLIAMS,
Attorney-General.

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Adjutant-General.

FORTY-THIRD CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION.

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES,

In the House of Representatives, December 14, 1874.

On motion of Mr. CALDWELL:

Resolved further, That the Secretary of War is hereby directed to furuish to the House a detailed statement of the manner in which he has executed the provisions of joint resolutions passed at the first session of the Forty-third Congress, authorizing the President of the

United States to issue Army rations and clothing to the destitute people of the Tombigbee, Warrior, and Alabama Rivers, in the State of Alabama, showing the amount and kinds of provisions distributed, the time at which, the places where, and to what persons said provisions were distributed; and also such further information as he may be in possession of respecting the distribution of said provisious by persons not in the military service of the United States. Attest:

EDWD. MCPHERSON,

Clerk.

[First indorsement.]

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, December 15, 1874.

Official extract respectfully referred to the Quartermaster-General for

Respectfully returned to the honorable the Secretary of War, with copies and extract of all the papers on file in this Office on the subject, from which it appears that no clothing has been distributed to the sufferers from the overflow of the Tombigbee, Warrior, and Alabama Rivers. M. C. MEIGS,

Quartermaster-General, Brevet Major-General, U. S. A.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington City, December 7, 1874.

SIR: The Secretary of War desires me to invite your attention to the acts of April 23, May 13, and June 23, 1874, and the joint resolution of May 28, 1874, relative to the issue of clothing to persons suffering from the overflow of the Lower Mississippi River, and to the destitute people on the Tombigbee, Warrior, and Alabama Rivers, and to request that the detailed reports of such issue, required to be submitted to Congress by the acts referred to, be forwarded as soon as possible.

The report of the Commissary-General of Subsistence on this subject, and accompanying papers, have this day been transmitted to the House of Representatives.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

The QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL.

[Telegram.]

H. T. CROSBY,

Chief Clerk.

LOUISVILLE, KY., December 9, 1874.

QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL of the Army, Washington, D. C. :

Telegram of the 8th received. Chief quartermaster Department of Gulf telegraphs as follows: Clothing has been turned over by request

of Governor Kellogg to the relief committee of Louisiana for distribution to sufferers by overflow of Mississippi River. None went to sufferers by overflow of Tombigbee and Warrior Rivers.

[Telegram.]

JAMES A. EKIN,

Chief Quartermaster.

Col. J. A. EKIN, Louisville, Ky.;

WASHINGTON, December 8, 1874.

Has clothing, authorized by resolution of Congress of 28th May last, been distributed to sufferers by overflow of Tombigbee and Warrior Rivers? If so, when and by whom? Report for Congress needed immediately.

M. C. MEIGS, Quartermaster-General.

Hon. W. W. BELKNAP,

WAR DEPARTMENT, QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, D. C., December 8, 1874.

Secretary of War:

Referring to the acts of Congress of April 23, May 13, and June 23, 1874, relative to the issue of disused Army clothing to persons suffering from the overflow of the Lower Mississippi River, I have the honor to report the following action:

The Quartermaster-General has received no instructions to distribute clothing to the sufferers by the overflow of the Tombigbee, Warrior, and Alabama Rivers, (resolution of May 28, 1874,) and none has been distributed.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

M. C. MEIGS, Quartermaster-General United States Army, Brevet Major-General.

War Department refers communication of Hon. Frank Bromberg, Mobile, Ala., dated July 8, 1874, asking what methods are to be adopted for the distribution of relief to sufferers by overflow of the Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers.

[Second indorsement.]

Respectfully returned to the Secretary of War.

Under the joint resolution of the 28th of May, 1874, the sufferers from the inundations on the Tombigbee, Warrior, and Alabama Rivers are entitled to certain clothing, if needed and asked for.

The subsequent passage of the Army appropriation bill, with its proviso in relation to use of old-pattern clothing, did not take away this vested right.

The proper method and channel of distribution appears to be through the commanding general Department of the South, and his chief quartermaster.

M. C. MEIGS, Quartermaster-General, Brevet Major-General, U. S. A. QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE, July 17, 1874.